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VI Acquires Two New National Customers

At EBSCO, “Customer First” is one of our Seven Core Values, and rightfully so. EBSCO prides itself on understanding two important rules to maintain a thriving business: keep your current customers happy and always look to expand your customer base.

And Vulcan Industries knows a thing or two about expanding its customer base. The Moody, Ala.-based point-of-purchase display manufacturer has been landing big accounts for years – The Home Depot, CVS, Westinghouse, Kraft – just to name a few. With the acquisition of two big-dog accounts – Kohl’s Department Stores and Circuit City Electronics – Vulcan Industries (VI) is positioning itself as the go-to company for displays and complete brand merchandising solutions.

Expanding with Kohl’s
Kohl’s is a full-service department store with more than 800 stores in the United States. Kohl’s stores average 86,500 square feet in size and employ more than 50,000 people total.

Dave Johnston, VI account manager in the mid-west, spent nine months targeting Kohl’s based on store count and yearly store growth. The stores needed a new system to display wall art that would function better than their current peg hook system. When Kohl’s saw VI’s solution they were sold. To date, VI has produced display systems for 200 stores and is waiting to be awarded the full-store.

Following the success of the framed art display solution, Kohl’s approached VI once again to develop a shopping basket and stand for use in the house wares section of the store. Again, VI delivered resulting in a satisfied customer.

“We’re looking forward to continuing to produce them as new stores are added,” Johnston said. “While this was not an easy project to develop and sell, it is a good example of the teamwork between design, engineering, estimating, project management, production and sales.”

Plugging Into Circuit City
As one of the nation’s leading providers of consumer electronics, Circuit City comprises more than 600 stores and has a rich 50-year history. And Sam Sunderland, VI director of business development, had the company on his radar.

In February 2007, after several meetings, VI was awarded a project with Circuit City “The project will launch new products for the first time into the Circuit City offerings and will be backed with national print, radio and television ad campaigns,” Sunderland said. This project means that Sunderland has officially established VI as one of Circuit City’s store equipment suppliers and a “go-to” supplier for projects that warrant a higher degree of engineering difficulty. The project will cover all 657 stores in the Circuit City chain and future stores opening later this year.

The Future of VI
Pagan noted that these two accounts are important, as they show the direction VI is headed in its business. “The addition of Kohl’s and Circuit City continues to build on the strength of VI’s credentials as they relate to our marketing efforts,” he said. “The diversity of our customer base, which includes many of the country’s top retailers and brand marketers, puts us in a different league from many other Fixture/POP Suppliers.

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